Day of Dust is a dystopian sci-fi book. There a few different kinds of science fiction, and this is more of in the vein of books like the Giver or Fahrenheit 451. Not the spaceship and time machine kind. Ahem. (that’s my type)

Anyway, now that I have fully advertised Day of Dust, it’s time to get down to my thoughts: I’ll keep the spoilers to the minimum.

The tone of the book: The tone was fairly sad and depressing, but it had a hopeful ending, which I liked. It was also a fairly quiet book.

The plot of the book: It was about more of internal struggles and memories about the past, and what happened actually could be summed up in a few paragraphs, but the internal development and the discovery of the conspiracy (not really but the best way to describe it). It could of used some more suspense, But it also was about fixing the present. And of course, the best way to fix things is to smash objects. (hopefully, I’m being vague enough.)

The characters: The characters: Katia, Caius, Vail, Rudy, and Benton. Also the Administrator and Laina. Ummm…not much to say besides the fact they were good, fleshed out characters. The only critique would be that the characters felt kind of samey in personality.

The setting: In a old fashioned village, it’s implied that no one has cars and they have wooden ships with sails and cobblestone streets. The only bit of tech is owned by the administrator, which is a computer, (I think?) and the cuffs have wires in them, even though they look metallic and not high-tech from the outside. It’s also implied that the old fashioned state has been around for at least a while and people don’t know what computers are. (At least Vail doesn’t)

Ok, now that I’m done with my thoughts and descriptions, it’s time for some more questions to myself and Ellie, if she would be so kind to answer. (:

What did you think of the book as a whole? It was immersive and satisfying. I do think it was a little skimpy on the details of what was actually going on and why things worked the way they did, and other things. But it was a very ambitious project for a very first published book, and it was awesome!

Who was your favorite character?: Out of the whole bunch, I think Rudy was my favorite. He was clearly shown to be a character that wasn’t trying to get involved, but got involved anyway, and made the best of it. He also had a really cool personality. I think Katia and Caius should have been more trusting of his self control not to kill people.

Questions for Ellie.

When does the book take place? In our future? Close or far future? Is it even on Earth? Or a different planet or galaxy? Is it another world from a dimension? Or an alternate future, present, or past from a different time stream?

Ahem.

I may not have been paying attention too closely, but what was the main bad guy’s motivation? Power? I know the people voted him in so the could blame their sins on the Veiled Evil, but why did he want to be in charge anyway?

Notes:

I liked the Christian themes on the books. And as always, there needs to be a sequel. Or a conclusion. Or another book taking place in the same world. What happens to Caius in the city? What happens to Katia, Rudy, and Veil on the ship? What happens to the people? Most importantly, what does the villian do next?